The Simple Joy of Sunlight
by HuffynDK
Summary: Slices of life involving the crew and a Neal who has been suddenly left a child. As of now, its just going to be a series of vignettes.
1. Chapter 1

The Simple Joy of Sunlight

Elizabeth Burke was stressed out. She had more on her plate then she knew what to do with. She had three weddings in two weeks. One bride in particular gave a new meaning to the term 'Bridezilla'. It took everything in her to stay calm and professional. She would be glad to see this one done. She would perhaps never have taken the case except the mother was a good client and had promised to pay well. She and Peter needed the money. Their life had gone through so many upheavals lately. Reese Hughes had suddenly retired and Peter had been promoted to take Reese's job. It took Peter further out of the field but Elizabeth felt better for that. The house suddenly had the wrong floor plan and a new suburban development opened that they could afford in a gated community. It catered to young professional families with excellent ammenities including a good school and daycare, as well as a large park with three different playgrounds designed for the safety of different ages. The house was modern and all on one floor. They had three bedrooms now as opposed to two. That was critical with the new change. El smiled as she heard a noise and put away the scheduler and turned off the work on the computer. She left the office and closed it, locking the door.

She loved the warm feeling inside. This last change was very strange and drastic but also a miracle. Neither Peter or herself understood everything about it, but Mozzie had felt guilty over the Treasure and the high price Neal had paid. He said Neal was no longer made to live on the run. Deep down the MAN with giving him rules and responsibilities had ruined him. Neal, he informed them, had now developed a conscience which was a killer to a good con. He also couldn't adapt to life without El and Peter. Moz said Neal had been like a flower without sunshine and rain, withering down. It had become too painful to watch. Moz decided that no matter how much it personally killed him to say goodbye to his closest male friend, he knew though he had to save Neal by any means necessary. He had used his connections and got in touch with a 'free thinker of an alternative scientific bent'. Peter had stormed and classified the person as a mad scientist in line with Dr. Frankenstein. Moz had injected an unwitting Neal with a serum one night while he slept. When Neal awakened, he was only about 6 months, as close as Christie could determine without a larger battery of tests that would draw attention to the situation. Everyonde close to Neal and the family knew it was Neal, just severely altered. It seemed there was some of the adult there as at times he would just get a very solemn, annoyed look and stare at them and burble. It was obvious that he felt he was dispensing important information or displeasure, even if no one else understood.

She walked into the nursery. Neal was in his crib, not awake long. His hair was in disarray. He was lying on his back in just a diaper. One hand clutched a stuffed New York Yankee Hoodie dog by the ear. It was a gift from Peter and Neal seemed surgically attached to it. His other hand was playing in the sun ray. His eyes focused, almost mesmerized on the stream of light coming in through the window. Before becoming a mother, she would have been berating herself at the merest trace of dust. Now as she stood there, she was enchanted watching her friend, her little boy, enjoying the magic of it. He was giggling and squirming. He wasn't even aware at the moment that Elizabeth was even there. He was turning his hand slowly in the sun, watching how it wrapped around it and also left shadows.

She walked over to the crib. "Hey baby," she cooed. "Ready to get up?"

Neal turned to Elizabeth and gave a big smile. He rolled and lifted his arms to be picked up.

El picked him up and hugged him. She loved the feeling as Neal snuggled reached in and grabbed Hoodi. It was easier to catch it before he realized the dog was gone. Moz had forgotten Hoodi in his car after sitting. No one at the Burke residence got any sleep that night until Moz turned up the next morning and Hoodi was retrieved. Neal was so happy, smiling and burbling. She and Peter did miss the first side of Neal they had come to love. They hoped that as the control of the verbal and motor skills progressed they may see more signs that that part of Neal was still in there as well. Neal as he was now was just fine too. It was hard, at least for her and Peter, to stay stressed when he would be so happy and excited just to see them enter the room. Unconditional love and excitement could not be measured. She sat for an hour, rocking and sharing Neal's enjoyment and excitement of the sunshine. It reminded her there really were simple joys, even just in sunlight.


	2. Chapter 2

Spending the Day with Daddy

He was nervous. He shouldn't be, or at least that was what he told himself. He had handled Neal alone as an adult. Elizabeth had gone out before and left them alone. Oh who the hell was he kidding? That was only for a few hours and usually Neal was napping or just finished with a feeding. He was going to be responsible for Neal's full care for twenty-four hours. Peter looked up at the clock, his mind numb with all the duties that would entail. El had made him a four page list including do's and don'ts – he groaned as don't number 1 was doing work while Neal was awake. She had underlined it and put it in bold. "You don't mind if I look at this file, do you?" He asked Neal. Neal gave him a slobbery, drool smile and his blue eyes twinkled. Peter felt sorry for the poor people with an ugly baby who were simply deluded into thinking the kid was cute. He had one of the truly beautiful children. Neal was batting at the mobile Clinton had helped Peter install over Neal's play mat.

"aa ga aa" Neal burbled, happily batting a butterfly on the mobile and making it jingle. He looked very proud as he repeated the motion. It filled Peter with wonder to see Neal discovering the world, or at least this part of Neal. Neal kicked his feet with glee. It was as if he had made some momentous discovery.

"You play with Hoodi and your mobile. Daddy is going to just do some work." He opened the folder. What El didn't know won't hurt her. He was right in the same room and he couldn't see any dangers. Satchmoe was lying next to Neal.

Peter made it a point to look up every several paragraphs. Each time Neal was engaged in his mobile or mouthing Hoodi's ear. He heard Satchmoe's tail thumping.

Satchmoe didn't understand how his good buddy Neal was suddenly this tiny thing. He didn't really care though. The smell told him it was Neal and that was all he really needed or wanted to know. Neal was fun and kind to him. Sometimes this little one would pull his fur while petting him, but he sensed it was simply because right now the little one didn't know any better. He considered it his duty to help his human Mommy and Daddy watch over Neal. He would alert them to dangers, and also to the powerful eye watering aromas that could be produced. He would go and nudge them until they went over and fixed the problem. He tried with Mozzie but Mozzie was hopeless at understanding dog and Satchmoe wasn't big for opting to master the human tongue.

He didn't even mind the jingling. He took a whiff and hurriedly covered his nose with his paw. Yep, as if on cue, the cute smiley thing had dropped a stinky. Peter was less than two feet away. He would wait a second. Mommy was able to pick up on stinky at that distance. He figured that Daddy was very smart and he surely would notice. He did hope it would be soon. He needed to go outside and clear his nose with the enticing smells of grass, flowers, and the morning news courtesy of the fire hydrant. Pudge the Pomeranian was going for his snip date and he wanted to find out how he did. Humans always took as much time as they wanted on their papers of which Satch thought there was really only one good use for and that was in an extreme emergency. It annoyed him that human's didn't extend the same courtesy for them to go and read their paper on the fire hydrant.

Peter took a deep breath and groaned. He looked up and saw Satchmoe and his worst fear was confirmed. Peter understood changing diapers came with the territory. El insisted that the duty be shared and it was a 'father/son bonding experience'. Peter was all in favor of bonding but he preferred activities that didn't look and smell so disgusting at times he had to fight the urge to run to the toilet and heave. He had been to crime scenes that looked and smelled better than a baby diaper. He looked up and grinned. Neal had figured how to propel himself a little via rolling. It amused Peter though that Neal didn't have mastery on the reverse gear. He would roll until he met a roadblock and look annoyed and confused. He would proceed to try to take down the roadblock until an adult heard the frustration and discretely repositioned the baby so Neal could go back on his merry way. Neal was at the roadblock of the TV. He seemed to have a love/hate relationship with it. Neal loved the TV that he could watch his stuff on, but he hated the roadblock the entertainment center made and its inability to get out of Neal's way. He felt he was making his intensions perfectly clear and that the furniture was being stubborn.

Peter girded up his courage and a clothespin he'd snuck into the house at the advice of some veteran fathers and picked up Neal. He cuddled his son and headed off to the nursery to face his fate with courage and dignity befitting an FBI agent.

TBC…

Thank you for all the story alerts and favorites. I am so glad you are liking this.

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